Railway-rail joint.



No. 631723. Pat'ented Nov. 2|. 1899.

F. T. FEABEY.

RAILWAY RAIL JOINT.

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W m. BY Ava/u I *%E YS UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK T. FEAREY, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

RAILWAY-RAIL JOINT.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 637,723. dated November 21, 1899.

Serial No. 676,307. (No model.)

Application filed April 4, 1898.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK T. FEAREY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Rail Joints; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to that class of railway fish-plates in which the plate is longitudinally doubled and adapted to engage the upper and lower surfaces of the flange of the rail; and the objects of the invention are to enable the fish-plate to be more firmly and rigidly fastened to the ties, to secure the greatest possible strength and efficiency of the fish-plate, to enable the fish-plate to be more perfectly adjusted to the rails, to obtain a more perfect rail-joint, and to secure other advantages and results, some of which may be referred to hereinafter in connection with the description of the working parts.

The invention consists in the improved fish-plate and in the combinations and ar rangements of parts of the same, all substantially as will be hereinafter set forth, and finally embraced in the claim.

Referring to the accompanying drawings,

in which like letters of reference indicate corsaid fish-plates comprises a vertical plate g,'

having oppositely-inclined bearings g g at the upper and lower edges of the same, adapted to engage correspondiugly-inclined bearings b d on the under side ofthe head and the upper side of the flange, respectively.

Below the said vertical portion 9 is a longitudinally doubled or folded portion h, lying in a horizontal position and providing an opening or space h, adapted to receive the flange d of the rail. The walls of said doubled portion 77. rest against the upper and lower sides of the flange d and bear against the same, as shown, thus firmly holding said flange. The vertical plate 9 is wedged between the head b and the flange d of the rail, as has been described. Any looseness at the upper and lower inclined bearings g g of the vertical plate or between the walls of the doubled portion h and the flange d may be readily taken up by tightening the nuts upon the bolts f, as will be understood. Said looseness may result from variations in the castings or may be due to slight wear at the bearing-surfaces.

The upper fold of the doubled portion it has its inner surface inclined, as at k, with ref erence to the lower fold for a portion of its width adjacent to the open end of the flangespace It, the degree of inclination being such as to make that portion of the inner surface lie parallel to the top of the flange. Beyond this inclined portion is and next to the closed end of the flange-space h the said inner surface is parallel or approximately parallel to the lower fold. Thus the part of the doubled portion h adjacentto the outer edge of the rail-flange does not come in contact with the top of said flange, and a more firm and posi tive bearing of the upperfold of the doubled portion against the flange dis secured by affording space for any inequalities at the edge of the flange due to rolling.

At the turn in the doubled portion h 1 form an outwardly-projecting flange i,'extending lengthwise of the fish-plate. Said flange 2' has its under surface in the plane of the under surface of the doubled portion h, and its upper surface is suitably inclined to present a pleasing appearance and give the desired strength. In said flange i are perforationsj to receive the spikes Z, used in fastening the fish-plate and rails to the ties. Said perforations are preferably rectangular in shape to correspond to the cross-sectional shape of the spike in common use, although they may be of any desirable form. The perforations are, in a direction at right angles to the length of the fish-plate, slightly longer than the thickness of the spike, as will be understood upon reference to Fig. 1. This-allows a limited movement of the fish-plate toward the rail when the bolts f are tightened to take up any looseness of bearings, as has been explained. The distance between the inner edge of the perforations j and the flange-space h vof the doubled portion is equal to the greatest thickness of the walls of the'doubled portion, so

that no weakening ofthe fish-plate'is caused by forming said perforations, yet the perforations are as close to the doubled portion as is consistent with strength, so that when the spikes Z are inserted into place their heads" extend inward over the edge of the doubled portion h, thus holding the fish-plate down firmly upon the road-bed. Since the flange 11 surrounds the spike Z, it is evident that the fish-plate cannot slip either laterally or longitudinally, so as to escape from the spikes.-

The methods of placing the spikes with reference. to the fish-plate heretofore have been open to various objections. For instance, when the spikes are placed against the straight edge of the fish-plate sufficient lateral movement may take place to cause the edge or edges of the plate to slip from under the heads of the spikes, rendering said spikes useless, or longitudinal movement may draw the fish plate out from under the end spikes in a simia lar manner. Rectangular recesses in the edge of thefish-plate to receive the spikes will not remedy the difficulty due .to lateral movement and will only lessen in some degree that due to longitudinal movement. Again,if dovetailrecesses are formed it necessitates the use of;a peculiar form of spike, which entails great inconvenience and expense in practical use. By my improved construction of the fish-plates the ordinary form of spike may be used and the fish-plate be held securely in place without possibility of escape fromthe spike, since the flange entirely surrounds the spike. At the same time the peculiar shape of the perforations j for the spikes Z permits the flange i tomove with respect to the spikes when the fish-plate is drawn closer to the Web of the rail by tighteningthe nuts on the bolt fto take up wear at the top and bottom of the vertical portion 9.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new is e The combination with the adjacent ends of railway-rails, of a fish-plate having a vertical portion standing away from the web of the rails and bearing at its upper and lower parts against the heads and flanges,- respectively, of the rails,- means for drawing said fish-plate nearer to the web of the rails as the said bearing-surfaces wear away, said fish plate hav- "ing a doubledlowered portionreceiving the flange of therail without engaging its edge, and a horizontal outwardly-projecting flange integrally formed at the turn .of said doubled portion and being perforated, spikes passing through said perforations, said flange entirely surrounding the spikesand' the perforations being in a direction a right angles to the length of the fish-plate of greater width than the spikes therein) whereby movement with respect to the spikes is permitted when the fish-plate is tightened to take up wear, substantially as set forth. i

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I I have hereunto set my hand this 29th day of March, 1898-. I

FREDERICK 'I. FEAREY. Witnesses:

CHARLES H. PELL,

0. B. PITNEY. 

